ZEIT-GEIST-ZEIT
KATE BANCROFT, ESTEBAN CABEZA DE BACA, PATRICE APHRODITE HELMAR, HEIDI HOWARD, ARGHAVAN KHOSRAVI, GARY KUEHN, JUDY PFAFF, JOHANNA ROBINSON, JAMES EVERETT STANLEY, ERIN WOODBREY + PETER ZIMMERMANN
August 3 - September 21, 2019
Reception August 3, 6 - 8 pm
Gaa Gallery Wellfleet
Gaa Gallery Wellfleet is pleased to present zeit-geist-zeit, a group exhibition of paintings and sculpture from artists whose works engage with thematic and cultural concerns of time, spirit, and place. This exhibition opens with a public reception on Saturday, August 3 from 6 - 8 pm at Gaa Gallery Wellfleet, located at 230B Main Street.
A play on the term zeitgeist, the show’s title might be literally translated as time-spirit-time—a reflection of the refracted, elliptical nature of collective interests. Artists separated by decades—or nation, or culture, or identity—often find themselves on shared ground when in the generative space. The artists in zeit-geist-zeit reveal by looking; they employ a variety of highly individualized strategies, creating works defined by a dynamic accession of universal themes of the self in nature and the made world.
zeit-geist-zeit is a cross-disciplinary feast of images and materials, including sculpture from artists Gary Kuehn and Judy Pfaff. Kuehn, a pioneer of contemporary sculpture, presents “Sex of Heavenly Bodies” (1995), a study in the improbable simultaneity of heft and minimalism, movement and station. Pfaff presents two multimedia sculptures, “Bridget” (2014) and “Ground Wasp” (2019), that incorporate prescribed geometry, riotous movement, and a near infinitude of color.
In addition to these sculptural works, zeit-geist-zeit includes new paintings from German artist Peter Zimmerman, whose epoxy paintings are the abstracted yield of found images, as well as work from Esteban Cabeza de Baca, whose paintings are shaped toward capturing and reimagining lost cultural histories. The exhibition also includes portraits from artists and friends Kate Bancroft and Heidi Howard—each artist paints the other in contemporary studio settings. Bancroft came to sit for her portrait in Howard’s studio, and took a photo on that day to use for the portrait of Howard.
Also on view is the work of Iranian-born Arghavan Khosravi, whose paintings explore the culture and politics of Tehran via inventive renderings of the figure in various forms of exposure and enclosure, as well as photographs from Patrice Aphrodite Helmar, who presents fragmented views of New Orleans at night in the form of plant life and brickwork. Johanna Robinson’s paintings suggest narratives of whimsy and contemporary folklore, and James Everett Stanley fuses large-scale, imagined landscapes with diasporic figures. Erin Woodbrey’s conceptual sculpture, huge with physicality, perceived weight, and an intensity of process, mines the canonical organization of learning and knowledge.
zeit-geist-zeit is an expansive and thoughtful exploration of the ways in which an artist’s work achieves relevance through its contemporary qualities and historical perspectives. The exhibition is on view through September 21, 2019.
